How to Study

Evaluating Resources
You may find so many potential resources that you won’t have time
to read them all. Concentrate on those that have been published most
recently or written by the most respected sources. However, don’t
limit yourself too much—gather information from a wide range of
sources. Otherwise, you may learn only one side of the story.
There are two types of resources: primary and secondary.
How to Study
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Primary resources are those written by people who actually witnessed
or participated in an event. When you read a scientist’s report about
an experiment he has conducted, you are consulting a primary
resource.
Secondary resources are those written by people who were not
 actually present at an event, but have studied the subject. When you
read a book about the 1950s written by someone who was born in
1960, you are learning from a secondary resource.
Primary resources are likely to be more reliable sources of infor -
mation. But depending upon your subject, there may not be any 
primary resources available to you.
Where to Look for Materials
How do you find out whether anyone has written a magazine or
newspaper article about your topic? How do you know if there 
are any government documents or pamphlets that might be of 
help? How do you locate those written-by-the-experts reference
books?
You look in your library’s publication indexes, which list all of the 
articles, books, and other materials that have been published and/or
are available in your library. Most are arranged alphabetically by 
subject:
1. The card catalog. This is a list of all the books in your
library. (Although many libraries now store it on computer, 
it’s still often called a card catalog because it used to be kept
on index cards.) Books are indexed in three different ways: 
by subject, by author, and by title. 
Chapter 6 
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How to Conduct Your Research
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